The New South Wales State Library in Australia launched a "search and rescue" mission on Friday to revive lost indigenous languages, using the letters and diaries of early British settlers.

When the British first arrived on the shores of what became Sydney Harbour in 1788, an estimated 250 local languages were spoken in Australia, but many have been lost.

A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: the sacred text that people revered in the past was not the same one we study today.

An ancient version of one book has an extra phrase. Another appears to have been revised to retroactively insert a prophecy after the events happened.

A remarkable trove from Pakistan's little-known Buddhist past has gone on show in New York in an art exhibition that defied floods, riots and explosive U.S.-Pakistani relations before finally crossing the world.

The against-the-odds exhibition, "The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara," features sculptures that have mostly never before been seen in the United States.

Ornately jeweled Easter eggs designed by Karl Faberge for the Russian royal family are among hundreds of Faberge objects on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

"Faberge Revealed" includes imperial Easter eggs and other pieces from VMFA's own collection, along with sculptures and other works loaned from three private collections, making the exhibit the largest public Faberge collection in the United States, said Geza von Habsburg, a Faberge expert and the exhibit's guest curator.

The Faidherbe bridge, a century-old emblem of Senegal's former colonial riverside capital Saint-Louis, is being fully restored after threatening to collapse into the Senegal River.

Its seven majestic arches once again firmly straddle the river, providing a key link between the mainland and the island city which was founded in 1659 and became the first French settlement in sub-Saharan Africa.

Taiwan animal rights activists and community leaders on Wednesday called for a ban on a popular "holy pig" rite in which pork are force-fed before being sacrificed in public.

In the "holy pig" contest, carried out among the ethnic Hakka community, farmers compete to raise the heaviest pig in the neighborhood, with the "winning" animal killed to please the gods.

Religious-linked violence and abuse rose around the world between 2006 and 2009, with Christians and Muslims the most common targets, according to a private U.S. study released Tuesday.

"Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66 percent) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59 percent)," said the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life study.

When Dani bin Misra was released from prison last week after serving just three months for smashing in the skull of a member of a Muslim sect, this conservative Indonesian town let out a triumphant cry.

"He's a hero!" Rasna bin Wildan said of the teenage killer.

An art show featuring a poster of Jesus Christ with a wooden penis glued to his face was closed Tuesday after President Benigno Aquino intervened amid threats, vandalism and claims of blasphemy.

The closure came as a church group in the mainly Catholic country announced it was filing charges against the Cultural Center of the Philippines over the installation by local artist Mideo Cruz, which it said violated religion.

Fifty years after its loathed Wall went up, Berlin is gripped by a renewed desire to preserve the few remaining traces of the dark chapter of its division and bring history to life for visitors.

Of the 155-kilometer (96-mile) length of the Wall which made East Berliners prisoners of their own country, there is little more than three kilometers left -- a heritage authorities are now keen to protect.